


route sixty-six

by ymthut



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, american midwest gothic, roadtrips and diners and being young and dumb, thats it really tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 17:21:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14753097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymthut/pseuds/ymthut
Summary: “Hello?” A voice that wrapped around syllables like pink bubblegum nearly made Lucas jump straight out his skin, snapping his focus forward to a tall guy with ashy grey hair and beauty that softened his edges. He seemed out of place for a town that looked like the result of a post-apocalyptic scenario, or maybe, which is actually the unfortunate reality of it all, a loss of tourism leaving it to rot.





	route sixty-six

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  i love ,,, american gothic ,,, but specifically the american midwest gothic with all the towns desolated by abandoned highways and dried up mines and empty oil rigs ,,, there's a lot of towns here with populations of one to five people and it terrifies me as someone who is from the most populated area of the united states. 
> 
> also unbeta'd bc i wrote it primarily at two to four am lol good luck

 

 

There was a desaturated tone to the sky that came with heady light pollution, but not potent enough to drown out the bright constellations that grinned down at the half-barren town. Rolled down windows let the air barrel at Lucas as the car rolled its way down empty asphalt. All there had been for miles were worn billboards that haven’t been changed in years and street lamps that didn’t quite work right and winked at him every once in a while.

The buildings were beginning to show up, though sparse, and when they were seen had chipped paint and washed out pastels that used to be vibrant. He distantly wondered how much activity they all used to see before they became a member of the endless ghost towns dappling the midwest. Fluorescent signs that were once vibrant glinted at him, telling him to ignore the skeletons of cars that were abandoned and to stop for them. He kept driving.

Paint lines on the road were archaic and all but gone, though Lucas couldn’t help but feel like everyone that lived here didn’t need them anymore. He wasn’t sure what was more uncomfortable: The idea of there being no life here or the fact that there was, indeed, people still populating a shelled out town. There was something about another car driving past him that didn’t feel quite real here, but one did anyway. 

The town couldn’t of been that large, but it still seemed to drag on for miles and loomed down at him with those tall, tall, tall looming signs and barred off windows. Lucas bit his lip, pressing a little harder on the gas. He never saw a speed limit sign anyway. He never saw any actual road signs, but it, again, felt like the few remaining residents really didn’t need them. 

A pathetic baby blue building with chrome detailing that probably used to shine was what finally made him push his turn signal. He’d call the sign retro if it were vaguely appealing but instead it was just dated and depressing. Lucas didn’t really want to stop, but who knows how many more towns like this he’d have to sit through. The amount of them that just wouldn’t have any population. He cut the engine.

The stillness in the air made his skin crawl, used to a constant, loud stream of white noise that would pump its way into the ground like vibrations and clatter in the air like being in a rock concert’s bathroom stall. It felt bizarre and foreign. Unearthly to someone like him that thrived on energy and people.

 

 

The atmosphere of the diner was different but also not. The acidic yellow lighting was kind of ugly against more baby blue themed furniture and scuffed checkered flooring that presented itself like it belonged in the fifties. It probably had been from it. It smelt like grease and disownership. There was a couple that looked like they were going to start screaming through their hushed, stressed whispers they shared over stale looking plates.

“Hello?” A voice that wrapped around syllables like pink bubblegum nearly made Lucas jump straight out his skin, snapping his focus forward to a tall guy with ashy grey hair and beauty that softened his edges. He seemed out of place for a town that looked like the result of a post-apocalyptic scenario, or maybe, which is actually the unfortunate reality of it all, a loss of tourism leaving it to rot.

Looking into his eyes was kind of jarring, gently curved with straight eyebrows that rivaled them. They were a black-brown like Lucas’s, but brimmed with a sort of temporal acceptance. It was far from downcast, but maybe it just bored. A dangerous urge to grab them by the wrist and drag them along the deserted highways and empty desert thrummed under his skin.

Lucas cleared his throat instead, teeth a bright ivory in his grin. “Hi!” It was a little too bright, a little too loud, but the man with a neatly pressed pink uniform shirt smiled back. He thinks it’s a genuine smile. The waiter didn’t say anything though, waving at him and pointing him towards some barstool. Lucas realized that the couple, who had begun to look at him after his all-but shout, couldn’t see around the large podium in between them. He thinks he’s grateful.

The waiter laid down a laminated sheet with worn edges and no gleam under the unflattering lighting. “Do you know what you’d like to drink?” That same rounded voice asked, curling around syllables and making the drab building more alive than the entire town. “You didn’t tell me your name.” Lucas said suddenly, making himself blink while the other did just the same.

They both stared at the words lingering in the air before a soft laugh like a harp but being plucked with heartstrings fluttered out. “My name is Jungwoo and I’ll be your server tonight.” There was a teasing note there, as if it was something he only said as a joke. Lucas figured it was by the state of the town. 

Lucas shoved a hand over the granite anyway. “I’m Lucas.” He said, smile all but breaking his face when Jungwoo took it with careful measurement. “Lucas.” Jungwoo repeated gently, as if he were already fond of him. Lucas couldn’t help but hope he was because he crossed his arms on the counter when Jungwoo let him go and leant forward.

“Well Jungwoo, I’d love a coffee. Lots of driving tonight.” He couldn’t help but feel like his voice reverberated too much in the thick, aged air of the building. Jungwoo didn’t voice his opinion on it either way, already moving around the small space without much comment. Lucas flipped over a menu he wasn’t even really looking at.

Jungwoo poured him coffee that was a little too close to the lip of the cup, leaving Lucas to dunk forward, slurping at it so it didn’t tremble and spill over when he finally touched it. It was bitter and slid down his throat like wood chips, maybe even like strong liquor, but he didn’t say anything. Just carefully opened a room-temperature packet of creamer and poured it in with an almost comical grimace.

When he looked back up towards the waiter, he was smiling a bit sheepishly. “I don’t actually know how old those are…” Jungwoo muttered, tapping a pale finger to the overflowing caddy of not-really-condiments. Now taking notice of the greying dust that clung to the surface like a film, Lucas let out a long and defeated type of groan.

Already pouring out his mug with a certain degree of diligence, Jungwoo was quiet as he went through the motions again. The coffee was noticeably lower this time and Jungwoo was patting his forearm with consoling fingers. “I’ll get you some actual milk.” He said, already retracting his hand and wandering off towards dulled brick red doors. 

Lucas looked at the barely hot liquid again, the black reflecting his face back at him shamelessly There were faint bags under his eyes and hair mused by wind, something he was quick to ran a hand through. He wondered how many more miles there was until New York. The faint steam from his coffee didn’t tell him, neither did the low but too loud humming of the building’s electricity. He blinked under radioactive lights.

Jungwoo came back with a cream pitcher and flapping doors, settling the metal down with a ‘clink’ that was overtly audible in the space. He was smiling at Lucas before wandering off again. Lucas stared as he walked away, mouth opening to say something, but he had made a beeline for the only other two patrons.

Lucas tapped his fingers against the granite before grabbing the silver handle and watching a thin rope of milk slide its way into his drink. It turned a fantastic caramel. It still tasted crispy, but he didn’t completely have the urge to choke on it like a freshman doing shots for the first time. He figured that was the best it was going to get here. His eyes flitted up to the back of a pink shirt. The best he was going to get coffee-wise, at least.

The light thud of feet was coming back to him, pale hands sliding along the counter. “You ready to order, Lucas?” Jungwoo’s voice turned lit on his name, making Lucas snap up to look at him with an all too blinding grin. He watched Jungwoo swallow and it made his lips stretch more. 

Lucas slapped his finger randomly down at the menu, something he hadn’t even really registered. “This sounds really good, man. Load me up.” He was boisterous, the loud volume turning the diner a little claustrophobic with how much room it took up. Jungwoo looked at him a little funny. “You’re pointing to white space.” He pointed out kindly, tapping at his finger with a chewed on ballpoint pen. Lucas didn’t flush, but he did scratch at his neck a little awkwardly. 

“I’ll get you whatever, how about that?” Jungwoo offered, scribbling down something on a tiny pad of paper with a smile that was more cheeky than Lucas thought he was capable of. He bit back a new grin. He wanted to know who Jungwoo was. Maybe why he decided to stay in a lonesome town when there was probably so much more out there.

Lucas didn’t voice that though, just handed the flimsy sheet to Jungwoo instead. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, that sounds alright.” He said helpfully, leaning forward from his seat to peer at the order before Jungwoo pulled it away from him with lifted eyebrows. Lucas emitted a low whine, something he wasn’t sure if Jungwoo found charming or not by the way he bopped him on the nose with the decrypted pen. 

Jungwoo wandered off for just a second, sticking his head in a small window and muttering something to someone before making his way back to Lucas. Lucas stared at him a little dumbly as he dropped an elbow down on the dirty countertop and smiled brightly. “I haven’t seen a stranger in nine months.” He said smoothly, tilting his head when he placed it in a propped up palm. Lucas thrummed at the idea of an actual conversation.

He began to talk, probably too much, but talked about everything. How he was leaving California for New York to live with his cousin that screeched and cackled his laughter. How he was taking the ‘scenic route’, something that Jungwoo scoffed at. How this seemed to be the first ghost town to have more population than just three people and no electricity. How he wasn’t sure if his car was gonna make it thousands and thousands of miles all at once, but he was trying anyway.

Lucas wasn’t sure when a plate was put in front of him, or when he began to mindlessly eat whatever was on it in between and probably through words. It was just a constant barrage of sentences as he went, with Jungwoo interjecting with soft echos and maybe a markedly jaded look now and then.

It wasn’t malicious or hateful, just a sort of resignation that didn’t really surprise Lucas anymore when Jungwoo said he was born and raised in a town with a population of seventy-nine. There was a few beats of silence where Lucas’s knife scraped against the ceramic of his plate and Jungwoo looked at him with keen eyes. Enthralled, as if Lucas was completely foreign but still more delightful than whatever else he had ever experienced. Lucas didn’t know how to articulate a similar feeling whenever he stared the waiter dead in the eye.

“You can come with me, you know.” The offer was out before Lucas could even contemplate it, his mouth, as always, running ahead of him. He had known the guy for about forty-five minutes, the guy who had a life here even if it was something that Lucas had no clue how to live in. He felt just as bewildered by himself as Jungwoo looked, standing up straight. 

“I’m serious.” Lucas said, stuffing a piece of something in his mouth. He was, he realized, and he really wasn’t sure why. Maybe he just didn’t want to part with someone whose eyes dug that far into him, leaving them two thousand and five hundred miles away to sit in some barren town three minutes away from a nuclear test site.

The air was quiet again, stilted and thick like when he first walked in. Lucas distantly noticed that the couple was gone now and he wondered if Jungwoo even gave them a check. If they even needed one. Everything here may of been a tired loop, a cycle that never really did stop repeating. He thought it’d drive him insane.

It took a few minutes of prolonged silence, Lucas’s remaining food cold and abandoned, before Jungwoo spoke up again. 

“Will you kill me or leave me on the side of the road?” He said quietly, gingerly even. Lucas could feel his eyes glint, grin cutting through the age-old air of the forgotten American midwest. “New York would probably do that to both of us anyway. I’m not gonna rush the process.” He chimed, jolting a little when Jungwoo was setting himself into motion just a bit too fast. 

There were keys hitting the chef’s window, another low murmur, and a lot of other actions that Lucas just watched in awe until a hand was grabbing at his. It made him drop his fork to acknowledge it. He thought Jungwoo’s fingers wrapped around his just like gum, just like his voice. It left Lucas haphazardly dropping bills on the counter, probably too much, but he didn’t even know what he ate.

“Just stop by my house first, I can pack everything I own in one suitcase under five minutes.” He said lowly, half drowned out by the discount christmas bells hooked to the door. Lucas felt his heart and hand squeeze tight, wondering faintly if downtown manhattan was ever going to shine as bright as an alive boy left in a ghost town. If only it could even aspire to be.

He wasn’t sure if his fascination with Jungwoo was gonna last the trip, or if it was gonna outlive both of them, but when the waiter looked back at him with wondrous eyes he couldn't help but be sure it was at least gonna be a while. What’s the point of being young without being a little reckless, after all?

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> pay attention to me on twitter i don't post anything but i want friends  
> [@ymthut](https://twitter.com/ymthut)


End file.
